President Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela and threats to other countries, as well as concerns about affordability, exposed fractures within the congressional GOP this week at the start of a challenging midterm election year.
Trump avoided defeat when most House Republicans declined to override the first of two vetoes of his presidency, which spiked a pair of nonpartisan infrastructure bills that would’ve benefited Colorado and Florida.
But it was otherwise a less-than-stellar week for Trump on Capitol Hill, though Republicans are projecting confidence.
“This isn’t an unusual situation, particularly coming into midterm elections, where you have senators that are in tough situations,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
A senior White House official said the defectors represent just a “tiny fraction” of congressional Republicans.
“Republicans aren’t always going to have the same views as the president,” the White House official said.
Still, cracks in GOP unity emerged on multiple fronts.
On Thursday, 17 House Republicans broke ranks and voted with Democrats on legislation to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years, despite opposition from House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and the widespread unpopularity of the Obamacare subsidies within the Republican party.
The White House official said Trump opposes a three-year extension, but the vote was not viewed internally as a defeat.
The enhanced tax credits were first enacted under President Joe Biden in 2021 and have been a focal point of Democratic messaging on health care and affordability. The credits expired at the end of 2025, resulting in sharply higher premiums for millions of Americans who get their health insurance on ACA marketplaces.
Many of those who supported the bill to extend the tax credits were among the most vulnerable Republicans in the 2026 midterms.
“I have long opposed the damage the Unaffordable Care Act has done to our country, but I will not watch Wisconsinites lose health care because Democrats let their own law collapse,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., who voted for their extension, posted on X. Van Orden is running for reelection in a toss up district, according to Cook Political Report.
Earlier on Thursday, five Senate Republicans bucked the president and joined Democrats on a procedural vote that could rein in his ability to take military action in Venezuela. Trump responded in a Truth Social post that “Republicans should be ashamed” of the senators who supported the preliminary vote and said they “should never be elected to office again.”
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., one of the members called out by Trump, declined to comment on the president’s comments on Thursday. When asked if he was open to changing his stance on subsequent War Powers votes, Young told reporters, “Why would I?”
The White House, however, said there is a “significant” chance future votes on the resolution might go the president’s way.
“A number of these members have left the door open to additional conversations,” the senior official said.
Meanwhile, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who is retiring at the end of his term in January 2027, has found himself at odds with the administration on several fronts.
On Wednesday, Tillis took aim at White House senior adviser Stephen Miller from the Senate floor, calling Miller’s comments about the U.S. taking over Greenland “amateurish” and “stupid.”
The White House official called those remarks “disappointing.”
A day after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents killed a civilian in Minnesota, Tillis also announced he was blocking all Department of Homeland Security nominees. Tillis, however, said the hold was not related to the shooting, and instead had to do with Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem so far refusing to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“All I’m saying is, you need to show respect to a committee of jurisdiction,” Tillis told reporters this week.
And on Thursday, Tillis and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., secured passage of a resolution to place a plaque honoring police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 in the Senate.
Language authorizing the plaque was passed into law as part of a larger appropriations bill in 2022. The monument was supposed to be displayed on the West front of the Capitol by March 2023, but had been blocked by House Republicans.
Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have sought to shift the narrative on Jan. 6. On the five-year anniversary this week, the White House launched a web page casting blame on Democrats, then-Vice President Mike Pence, and Capitol Police for the violence that transpired that day.
Officers “risked their lives to defend the United States Capitol and protect members of Congress. Their brave actions upheld the rule of law and ensured that our democratic institutions could continue to function as intended,” Tillis said in a statement.
When asked about the plaque, the White House official said, “The administration doesn’t have a position on the decorations of the Capitol.”
